


Mistakes of Men

by joviantrilogy



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: ARGUS, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, aka they're on the suicide squad, all of the characters eventually crop up, suicide squad, the team meets under different circumstances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-14 12:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3410042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joviantrilogy/pseuds/joviantrilogy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity is 19 when she's blackmailed into working for ARGUS, Diggle is 30, and Oliver gets picked up from them off of the island when he's 24.</p><p>--</p><p>Or, how the original team arrow meets under completely different circumstances, like being forced to work for ARGUS on the Suicide Squad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> So this was supposed to be a oneshot and then it turned into a 30-page monster so I'm going to break it into two or three parts but it's all finished. I'll probably post the second part tomorrow. I tried to keep their ages close to canon but I might have messed Digg's age up :/ There's no beta on this so all mistakes are mine.
> 
> Hope you like it!

**[Polyvore Link](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/collection?id=4268987)**

 

She was nineteen when ARGUS came for her.

It was three days after Cooper told her that he said the virus was his. She was just beginning to feel like she could breathe again when the door to her dorm was forced open.

Three men in black Kevlar with guns walked in before a woman with a tight bun and a pristine suit made her way in. It was midnight in the middle of spring break and no one was around to help her for whatever was about to happen.

Felicity found herself backing up into the desk she was working at moments before, trying to put as much space between her and these people that just waltzed into her room and tore the door off of the hinges like it was nothing.

“What the hell?!” Felicity shrieked when she finally got her brain to start working again.

“Felicity Smoak, my name is Amanda Waller and I work for ARGUS,” Felicity did a lot of hacking and even she didn’t know what ARGUS was, she didn’t think that was a good thing. “We would like for you to come work for us.”

“What?” Felicity spluttered. Normally word vomit would be spewing out of her mouth right now but she couldn’t wrap her brain around anything that was happening right now. She wasn’t even sure that she wasn’t dreaming right now, but these people came to her dorm in the middle of the night and she did not want to go anywhere with them.

“I can tell you want to refuse. I suppose I should let you know that I am aware it was you that made that virus your boyfriend hacked into the Department of Education with. Should you refuse, this will be made public knowledge among other government organizations and by this time tomorrow you’ll be in a prison cell.”

Felicity’s mouth dropped. This could not be happening. Coop said it was his, this shouldn’t be happening to her, she should be home free to live her life.

“I can see you look confused. Let me be clear Ms. Smoak, if you choose to not walk out of this door with me, an FBI squad car will be here in 5 minutes and they will drag you out in handcuffs,” Amanda Waller’s voice was steely and cold and Felicity almost wanted to go to prison because she was a terrifying person and Felicity didn’t want to even think about what the people she worked with are like.

Weighing the choice in her head, Felicity finally decided that prison was probably worse than the agency that Waller worked for. There were laws that restricted the government, they cant exactly hold her prisoner and make her work can they?

So she nodded.

She barely makes it a week before she hacks into things she shouldn’t and tries to escape when she finds out about the Suicide Squad. She makes it down the hall before Waller and a guard find her and implant a bomb in her spine.

~~~

John Diggle misses his brother a lot. More than that, he’s angry. His brother was killed over two months ago and the police have a grand total of zero suspects and a microscopic amount of evidence to use.

So John goes to someone that has more resources: his ex-wife. Lyla had contacted John after Andy’s death and said that if there was anything she could do to let him know. So John knocked on her apartment door with a file and a plea for justice.

Lyla helps him for a while. And then ARGUS figures out that she’s using resources to help her ex-husband who is now a civilian. Amanda Waller is less than pleased when that happens so she brings in Lyla and John.

And she gives them a deal.

Lyla keeps her job with nothing on her record and John gets to keep looking for his brother’s killer but he has to sign on with ARGUS in their military division, read: a hired gun. For a while, the people he takes out are the same people he would be taking out in the army, terrorists, threats to humanity, just general bad guys. And then the hits turn personal and he wonders what these people have done to warrant their death.

When he looks into it the answer is not much.

He’s twenty-nine when he signs on with ARGUS. When he’s thirty they put a bomb in his spine to keep him in line.

~~~

Oliver Queen is twenty-two when he’s shipwrecked on a supposedly deserted island. By the time he’s twenty-four, he’s watched Sara Lance die for a second time, gotten Shado killed, and had to kill Slade Wilson, a man he thought of like a brother.

He’d rejoiced when he woke up in an actual bed in a room on land and not that god-forsaken island. There were people around, and phones, and modes of transportation and in two days he could be back home in Starling City with his family, Tommy, and Laurel.

And then he was looking at a woman named Amanda Waller and he was forced to kill people for her or he was getting put back on that island. And Oliver Queen would do anything to make sure he never got put back on that island again. So he agreed quickly.

Two days later he was looking through the scope of a sniper and the image on the other side was his best friend. And this was after his third escape attempt. You would think somewhere as busy as Beijing, there would be places for him to hide and people that realized he needed help, but each time he was caught again.

So once they take care of Tommy without killing him, he continues on with Amanda Waller’s work trying to pretend as if pieces of his soul aren’t being ripped out each time he takes the life of a person and doesn’t know the reason why.

He doesn’t fight it anymore, and he doesn’t try to escape. He figures if he behaves maybe one day Amanda Waller will let him go home.

That glorious day comes when he’s almost twenty-five and Maseo tells him to pack his bags, that he’s leaving. Maseo doesn’t say that he’s going home but Oliver cant imagine where else he would be going.

So, with a lighter heart that he ever imagined having, Oliver packs his bags and gets on the private plane with Amanda Waller.

They reach cruising altitude at the exact moment Oliver is handcuffed to his seat. Apparently, he knows too much about ARGUS, and his skills are too great to be wasted by him going back home.

He needs to stop working to get home, because that’s never going to happen.

And then a bomb is implanted in his spine so that he never tries to run again. When they land, he’s given a yellow jumpsuit that says ARGUS, has a bar code and his apparent prison number and a brand new cell.

~~~

For the first few days, Felicity is treated like a high-end prisoner, she imagines this is what it’s like for really rich people that get sent to prison for tax evasion or something else of the sort.

She has her own room, it’s small and the bed isn’t very comfortable, but she has real sheets and three pillows. There’s a desk and a closet with her own clothes in it. She has a pile of books that she’d been allowed to bring.

She isn’t allowed access to technology except for when she’s working on something for ARGUS and she has a metal bracelet on her wrist that tracks everything she does electronically, with the added supervisor that stands over her shoulder every second she is on a computer.

She’s tried to get the damned bracelet off three times already but every time she hits it against something hard enough to even begin to make a dent, a red light beeps and a guard is in her ‘room’ within two minutes to sedate her.

Her nail polish was chipped, and she felt naked without her makeup, but what she hated the most was that they took the necklace that Cooper had given her for their two-year anniversary. It was the only thing that reminded her that she had a life out of this place she was kept in. Her hair was dyed back to its natural light brown, which actually made her feel better.

None of that mattered when she was told that Cooper killed himself. Or that that’s what everyone was told about her as well. The world thought that she was dead, and her world was dead.

For a few days after that she went through her tasks, didn’t ask questions, and didn’t try to break off her bracelet. The worst part was that everyone seemed to like her better that way.

But then one day, a little over a week after she got there, her supervisor was called to a computer across the room and instead of making her shut off her computer like he would normally do, he walked over to the other computer without saying a word to her.

Felicity was content to keep digging for information on China White, when she came across a file attached to it that was marked as level 10. Felicity was technically a prisoner so she didn’t have a level. But her curiosity got the better of her and after a quick glance around she sat on her bracelet clad hand and typed with her right hand.

The Suicide Squad.

Files upon files popped up on this team and how it was composed of criminals who did ARGUS’ dirty work because they were either dead or in federal prison and no one was supposed to look for them.

And they forced them to work by implanting bombs in them that could be detonated with the push of a button if someone diverged even a little bit.

Pushing the bile back down her throat and being thankful that there wasn’t a bomb in her Felicity closed the files and wiped the history before going back to looking for China White. Her supervisor came back and glanced at her screen with a happy smile, none the wiser to what she just stumbled upon.

That night, she took a bag and packed one pair of clothes before slipping into the air vent. She was not letting Amanda Waller put a bomb in her spine just because she was good at hacking.

She climbed out of the vent and into an empty hall. She made it down three more halls without incident and she could see a window that had freedom written all over it. Two steps later she was staring at Amanda Waller and a doctor.

“Going somewhere Ms. Smoak?”

“I’m not letting you put a bomb in my spine,” Felicity spit out coldly at her. Amanda just smiled and it looked creepy to Felicity, as if the muscles on her face had forgotten how to go through the simple action of smiling. It wouldn’t surprise Felicity.

“You don’t really have a choice,” Waller’s voice was cruel and Felicity shuddered as the man came closer to her and shot her in the neck with something. The last thing she saw was Waller looking down at her with a cruel, triumphant smirk on her face.

She woke up in a prison cell and she was wearing a yellow jumpsuit.

~~~

Three weeks after Felicity was officially forced onto the Suicide Squad, another member came. He was ten years older than her and his name was John Diggle. Felicity was by far the youngest member of the team, and the only girl if you didn’t count Harley who was never allowed out of her cell so Felicity wasn’t sure what she was doing there.

Most of the team seemed bothered by this, Ben’s little sister was a year younger than Felicity, and Floyd had a daughter himself. But no one seemed to be more disgusted by the bomb in her spine than John Diggle.

A week after the previously empty cell next to hers was taken up by John Diggle; he asked her the question he’d been dying to ask since he’d gotten there.

They were sitting at a table in the mess hall. They ate at a different time than the people that were actually employed by ARGUS but on the off chance that someone wandered in while they were eating, the bright yellow jump suits warned them to steer clear of the table full of criminals.

At present, Felicity was sitting alone with John at the end of the table, the rest of their team had eaten quickly and gone back to their cells, worn out from their last mission.

“How old are you anyways?” He asked in between bites of his hamburger, they at least got fed decent food. They got the same food as everyone else, and for that Felicity was thankful.

“I’m 19, almost 20” she wiped her palms on the pants of her jumpsuit, anytime someone asked her anything even remotely concerning her past she got nervous and sweaty, and she clammed up. The only thing that her time here had done was kick her nervous babbling in the butt. She was always afraid she was going to say too much and then the bomb in her spine would go off.

“I can’t imagine something a 19-year-old could do that would be bad enough that this seemed like the better of two options,” the way he phrased it made Felicity relax even though it was worded like he was searching. It was as if he knew that she was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she’d picked the rock when she should’ve picked the hard place. That’s how it was for almost all of them.

“I was stupid. And in love. I was a senior at MIT and my boyfriend used a virus I created to wipe out 30% of the student loans in the Department of Education. He got caught and he said the virus was his but Amanda found me a few days later, said she knew that I was the one that made the virus. She told me that I could either come work for her or the FBI would be at my doorstep in five minutes. I almost picked the FBI. Now I wish I had,” Felicity trailed off, surprised at how much she just shared with John. She had only known him for a week but she felt like she could trust him. She got the sense that he had made one misguided choice and now he was stuck for life like she was.

“So how did you working for her end up with you on this little team with a bomb in your spine?”

“I hacked into a level 10 file and found information on our little team. I tried to escape because I didn’t want that happening to me. Amanda found me and boom, stuck for life,” she twirled her finger in a sarcastic yippee motion and John smiled sadly at her.

“So John,” she started but he interrupted her quickly.

“Please, call me Digg,” Felicity nodded.

“Okay Digg, you seem like a good guy, like a really good guy, I mean everything about you screams military and honor, at least I was kind of doing criminal activity, I have a feeling you don’t have an immoral bone in your body. How’d you end up here?” Felicity held her hands out signaling around to the practically empty mess hall.

“I was in the military, Army Special Forces. When I got back from my third tour, my brother and I went into private security together. He got shot on the job and he died, they never caught the guy that did it. He was married to an amazing girl named Carly and they had a son, AJ. He was five when Andy died,” He trailed off for a few seconds and the look on his face made Felicity’s heart hurt so she laid her small hand on his massive bicep and gave it a gentle squeeze. He smiled sadly and continued on.

“My ex-wife works for ARGUS, and I asked for her help. She got caught after a while and they told me I had to come work for them if I wanted to continue looking for Andy’s killer. So I signed on, as an assassin essentially, but after a while the killing got to me. I wanted out but Amanda Waller didn’t like that thought. Next thing I knew there was a bomb in my spine.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, taking each other’s stories in and trying to process how one miniscule mistake derailed their entire lives. Felicity looked up when she felt eyes on them and noticed a woman around Digg’s age with short brown hair was staring at them out of the corner of her eye. She looked up at Digg and he definitely noticed.

“That’s my ex-wife Lyla,” he sighed when he noticed that Felicity was looking at the two of them. “She went off when she realized they injected a bomb in me. They threatened to put one in her too. She’s forbidden to talk to me now.”

Felicity gave Lyla a sad smile as they left.

~~~

When they went on missions Felicity usually worked from a van that had two high level ARGUS agents in it. Sometimes she had to go in the field with them and then everyone got tense until the mission was over.

It was partly because Felicity was young and no one wanted her to get hurt, and the other part was she had no field experience and was liable to get hurt.

They had to break into a bank once to get to a safe deposit box belonging to a target and Felicity was needed in the bank to override the security system.

She had her comm in her ear and her hair was down with a beanie to hide the comm. With her glasses, messenger bag and MIT sweatshirt she just looked like a college student as she stood in line with a deposit slip filled with fake information.

The lights flickered and Felicity stepped out of line and started walking towards the vault while everyone else panicked. She pulled out her tablet as the lights turned off and Ben and Floyd walked in wearing ski masks pretending to rob the place.

No one noticed Felicity and John sneaking off to the safe deposit boxes. They got in with little resistance but as they were rifling through the box and dumping the contents in the bag a security guard made his way into the room and fired his weapon at them.

Digg immediately drew his weapon and shot him in the leg before knocking him out with the butt of his gun, while Felicity dropped to the ground and finished emptying the safe deposit box into her messenger bag. She replaced the box and followed John out the back door and into the waiting van where Turner and Lawton were already waiting for them.

“Hey Smoak you okay?” Floyd asked as the agent drove away.

Felicity narrowed her eyes and cocked her head in confusion. Why wouldn’t she be okay? Lawton noticed her confusion and pointed to her upper left arm where the material of her MIT sweatshirt was ripped. The sweatshirt was red so you couldn’t see the blood that was starting to seep through the thick material.

“Oh,” she breathed out as Digg cursed and handed her bag to Turner and ripped Felicity’s sleeve from the hole making her wince in pain.

“We need a medic,” Lawton leaned up to talk to the two agents in the front. The one in the passenger seat turned around and saw the exposed wound before turning around. The driver didn’t speed up or deviate to a hospital. “Hey did you hear me? She got shot!”

“Our orders were to the bank and back, no matter what. She’ll be fine,” The driver responded in a clipped tone.

“Unbelievable,” Lawton chuckled.

“It went through and through, looks like it only hit muscle. You’ll need stitches but you’ll be okay,” Digg told Felicity in a soothing voice as he wrapped some of the ripped cloth around her arm. She moaned in pain but nodded leaning her head on Digg’s arm.

By the time they got back to HQ Felicity felt woozy from the blood loss. She didn’t even argue when Digg swept her up in a bridal hold and carried her all the way to the medic. He stayed with her as stitches were applied to the entrance and exit wound and she was given cream so it wouldn’t get infected. And then he sent them back to her cells, as if she hadn’t been shot two hours ago.

Two weeks later, Digg took her stitches out in her cell.

~~~

Oliver Queen joins their squad a year after Felicity and Digg. It's the middle of the afternoon when he's thrown in the cell on the other side of Felicity's, the last open one that they have.

His hair is long but they cut it into a buzz when he wakes up, from what Felicity can see he doesn't care either way. Felicity knew nothing about Oliver Queen before she came here and she knows nothing now but apparently she's the only one.

"What the hell is that kid doing here?" Turner asks the night that Oliver arrived. They're all eating their dinner even though it’s 9 o clock at night but Oliver wouldn't leave his cell.

"He probably crashed too many cars and this was the deal they made with the judge," Lawton snickers and Felicity is confused. She thought she read a news story about him being ship wrecked.

"I thought he was ship wrecked and presumed dead?" It's about the only thing she knows of him.

"That's the story," Turner said it as if it definitely wasn't true. "His family are billionaires, they could make almost anything happen."

Felicity shrugged as if she didn't care but her mind was spinning. She hated mysteries and now Oliver was a mystery to her.

The next day they're in a conference room getting briefed for a mission. They're supposed to sneak into some rich man’s party and Felicity has to get information off his laptop without them knowing she's there. It's supposed to be covert in and out with no fuss.

Felicity hacked the hosts- Charles Friedman's- computer and got an invitation for her and Oliver and put Turner and Lawton on the servers list. Digg was going as Oliver's bodyguard.

The fact that Oliver was going in as Felicity's back up made everyone uneasy except for Oliver it seemed. He didn't seem to have an opinion either way about what was happening but she knew that he was listening to what was happening. When she looked down she could see his right thumb and forefinger rubbing together in what she assumed was a nervous tick.

Their usual handlers Jack Teller and Brent Cooper brought them their clothes, weapons, and comms when the debriefing and planning was over. Felicity grabbed the mint green dress and make up bag from Brent and went to the corner of the room and turned around to change. Everyone was used to this by now. Once they were debriefed they weren't allowed out of the sight of their handlers. Felicity used to feel self-conscious about this sort of thing and now she couldn't care less about changing in a room full of men.

She pulled the strapless dress up her body and held the front against her chest and zipped it up as much as she could before her arm couldn't reach the zipper anymore.

"Hey Digg, a little help here?" Felicity called out and like he always did, Digg paused in his dressing to come zip her dress. She turned around and smiled to thank him. She tied his tie for him and he went back to his things to put the rest of his suit on.

She didn't like looking at Floyd when he changed. There were names tattooed all over him but she hadn't seen all of them. He always changed with his back to them and she had a feeling that there was a name on him that they wouldn't like. One of his kills.

She sat at the table and pulled a mirror out of the bag pulling her hair into a braided bun that looked somewhat nice. She was starting in on her makeup when she saw Oliver change his shirt and she had to stop herself from dropping her eyeliner. Because one, that man was built like a brick wall and two, his torso was covered in scars.

She glanced around and everyone else in the room was staring as well. Digg looked sort of sad and Turner and Lawton looked shocked.

Oliver Queen’s mystery just got a hell of a lot bigger.

;

Felicity had her arm looped through Oliver's as they walked around the party smiling easily at people as Digg followed behind with his hands crossed in front of him. They had no weapons with them because they needed to get through security without any trouble. They had their comms and a USB drive and that was it. Turner and Lawton had swiped knives from the kitchen and passed one to Dig and Oliver but she still didn't like that they didn't have guns.

A half hour into the party the trio discreetly made their way down the hall and then one by one they made their way to Friedman's office upstairs. Digg went first, choking each security guard until they passed out.

The office was locked with a pad lock but it only took Felicity a minute to get the office unlocked and the security camera turned off. She worked quickly fingers flying over the computer keys looking for what she needed. Occasionally her eyes darted across the room making sure Oliver and Digg were still there and that everything was under control.

She looked down again for a few minutes plugging the USB in when she found what she needed. She looked up when she heard Digg yell. A security guard had woken up and had Digg in a headlock. Digg's knife was in the security's hand, being held to Digg's neck.

"Stop typing and get away from the computer!" The security guard yelled at Felicity pressing the knife a little harder into Digg's neck making him grunt. Felicity immediately stopped typing and rolled away from the computer but she didn't get up. The security guard moved closer to Felicity taking his eyes off of Oliver for a second and then he was on the ground with Oliver's knife sticking out of his neck.

Digg grabbed the knife back from him and Felicity rolled back to the computer to finish her task.

"Felicity hurry up," Digg said walking over to her rubbing his neck as he did. Felicity nodded speeding up her fingers as the data finished downloading and she wiped all traces that she's been there. She unplugged the USB and stood. She looked and saw that Oliver was dragging the body into the closet. Digg walked over to the door and peeked out and he saw that another two guards were coming towards them.

"We have to go to plan B there's two guards coming," Digg told them and then he pressed his hand to his comm to tell Lawton and Turner that it was time to get out.

"Isn't plan B the window!?" Felicity exclaimed even though she knew it was true. She was slipping her shoes off and opening the window before Digg even answered her. Oliver took a desk from the side of the room and shoved it in front of the door to delay the guards.

"We have to move fast," Oliver said and it might have been the first time he talked all night.

Felicity stuck the USB in her bra and threw her heels out the window before pulling the hair tie out of her hair and pulling the long skirt of her dress up around her thighs and tying it loosely so it wouldn't get in her way.

"Okay let's go," she said once she was situated and Digg was out the window first. There was a white crossing fence with vines. It would be difficult but they were able to climb down it.

Oliver was above her and Digg was at the ground when the guards made it to the window and started shooting. Felicity pressed herself to the house making herself as small as possible.

She looked down and saw she only had a few feet to go. She looked back up and Oliver nodded at her so when there was a break in the shooting Felicity pushed off the side of the house and dropped to the ground, Oliver landing next to her seconds later. Trees surrounded the edge of the property so when the guards reloaded their weapons the trio made a break for it.

Felicity was well aware of the fact that Oliver was effectively shielding her in case any other bullets made it their way. Apparently it didn't take long for him to pick up the protect Felicity crusade that everyone else was prone too.

By the time they made it back to the van they were all out of breath and a little sweaty but unhurt.

"You guys look great," Lawton smirked at them once they had piled into the van.

"Do you have the USB?" Brent asked from the passenger seat. Felicity rolled her eyes and pulled the USB out of her bra and slapping it into Brent's out stretched hand.

Once they were back and changed into their jump suits Digg called out to Oliver.

"Hey Queen," Oliver turned around and Digg took a few steps towards Oliver. "You did good today. Thanks."

Digg held his hand out for Oliver to take and they shook.

Felicity swears she saw Oliver crack a small smile.


	2. The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Digg finds something out about his brother, Felicity gets kidnapped, and Oliver makes a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow wow wow! I'm completely blown away by the response I got from this. I was nervous to post this because I wasn't sure if anyone would like it and now I'm so glad I did.
> 
> This chapter does have some violence, I wouldn't say it's super graphic but fair warning just in case that makes anyone uncomfortable!

**[Polyvore](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/collection?id=4268987) **

 

All hell breaks loose two months later.

 

They're all in the training room. Felicity's training is light because she's not actually supposed to fight anyone though that hasn't been working well lately. Last week she was trapped with a thug and she'd barely held him off before Oliver had gotten to her. She had a thin but somewhat long scar on her torso from where he'd slashed her with his knife.

 

After that Digg and Oliver had started training her and right now she was working on self-defense moves with Oliver. Ben was throwing knives at a target and Lawton and Digg were working on hand-to-hand combat on a mat in the center of the room. There were seven guards wearing Kevlar with rifles in their hands walking around the room.

 

Felicity had just managed to successfully get out of Oliver's hold on her when she heard Digg yell out from behind her. Oliver dropped his stance and ran over to where Digg was on top of Lawton, who was shirtless.

 

"You bastard!"

It took Oliver, Turner and two other guards to get Digg off of Lawton.

 

"You son of a bitch!"

 

Lawton wasn't even fighting back. He looked almost sad.

 

"I'm going to kill you!"

 

Felicity took a few steps forward.

 

"You deserve to die!"

 

A doctor came in and stabbed Digg in the neck with a needle and then he went limp and the two guards carried him back to his cell.

 

Lawton was putting his shirt back on but Felicity caught sight of the name that made Digg loose it.

 

Andy Diggle.

 

Felicity wanted to punch him too.

 

When they were told to leave training Felicity went to Digg's cell to sit with him until he woke up but they wouldn't let her in so she went to her own cell surprised that Oliver was standing at the foot of her bed.

 

"Hey," Felicity said pulling her hair out of the messy ponytail it was in and sitting on her bed.

 

"So," he started but he didn't continue and Felicity knew he was fishing. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact.

 

"Lawton tattooed the names of all of his kills from before on his body. He never let anyone see the front of him shirtless but I guess he forgot why. Or maybe he wanted everyone to know. Who knows what goes on in anyone's head here. Digg's brother was shot while he was working security detail. They never caught the killer. Today while you were all trying to hold Digg back, I saw his brothers name on Lawton's chest."

 

Felicity threw herself backwards onto the bed and threw her arm over her eyes and Oliver let out a deep breath.

 

"Wow that's...wow."

 

"Yeah."

 

Felicity didn't really know what to say. She didn't know what was going to happen, if one of them would be kicked off or if they would just have to get over it. And how would that affect them in the field. They worked well together now but she doubted that would be the case now.

 

"Can I ask you why you're here?" Oliver asked after a few minutes. He sounded unsure as if he didn't know whether he was allowed to ask.

 

"I made a stupid mistake, same as most everyone else. I made a virus and then my boyfriend hacked into the department of education with it. He got sent to prison and a few days later Amanda showed up in my dorm and told me to come or go to jail," Felicity shrugged as in a ‘what can you do’ kind of motion. "Of course we're all prisoners now and there's a bomb floating around in my spine and even if I were to ever get out of here it would probably be to go to Guantanamo or some other federal prison for all the crimes that we've committed in the past year and a half. So really I should have taken my chance with the FBI. Hindsight’s 20/20 they say."

 

Oliver nodded along to her above average talking speeds as if it was normal.

 

"Two years after I got shipwrecked I woke up in China. Amanda Waller had me kill people that were threats but I kept trying to escape and get back to my family. Eventually I stopped fighting but that wasn't enough for her and she made me think like I was coming home but she stuck a bomb in me and I woke up here."

 

Felicity took her arm off of her eyes and turned her head to look at Oliver who had sat down on the bed. She hadn't expected him to say anything. He was the most closed off of their group and that was saying something.

 

"Your scars are from the island?" Felicity asked quietly. He was sharing for some reason right now and she wanted to see how much she could get out of him.

 

"The island wasn't as deserted as I thought it was," he stopped and Felicity thought he was going to share more but then he turned his gaze to the round scar that was too far down to be hidden by her jumpsuit. "That looks like a bullet wound."

 

"Yep, bank heist before you got here went a little wrong," she chuckled but it didn't sound right, it wasn't happy.

 

He opened his mouth to say something else but a guard came in and told them they were going back to the training room.

 

Amanda Waller was already there as well as Digg and Lawton. Felicity looked to Oliver quickly wondering what the hell was going on.

 

"We have a conflict within your team. The guards will leave, these two will fight until they're done or one of them is dead. You can intervene if you so choose but when you walk out of this door this conflict will be solved."

 

And with that Amanda left the room along with the guards.

 

Digg punched Lawton in the face as soon as the door shut and it was hard enough to bring him to his knees.

 

"Look man I know you’re angry."

 

Digg punched him again.

 

"It wasn't personal, it was just work."

 

Digg gave him one more punch before he backed up, shaking his right hand out.

 

"He had a son! And a wife! And now they don't have him because you missed and hit him instead of the guy he was protecting."

 

Lawton stayed quiet for a while rubbing his face and opening and closing his mouth, while he got back on his feet.

 

"I don't miss. Your brother was the target. If I didn't take him out someone else would have."

 

Digg clenched his fist and Felicity thought he was going to punch him again but he just shook his head and walked out of the room.

 

A week later when they were on a mission Lawton took a bullet to the thigh that was meant for Digg, and things were a little less strained after that.

 

~~~

 

Felicity is 22 when she is kidnapped.

 

They're in New York at some rich mans gala and Oliver is on edge the entire time because it is very possible that someone here will recognize him. He has more muscle, stubble, and his hair is shorter. He looks more serious but he still looks like Oliver Queen and rich people knew what he looked like.

 

He'd tried to sit this one out but Amanda wouldn't let him, said they needed all hands on deck because there was going to be a lot of security there. They were doing their normal routine of Felicity going as Oliver's date, Digg as the bodyguard and Turner and Lawton as waiters. They had gotten there extremely early so that they would be able the have their guns tucked into their ankle holsters. Oliver and Digg had to settle for waiting until they were inside for their back ups from Lawton and Turner.

 

When Felicity was given her red strapless dress she turned around and changed and was about to call for Digg to zip her up when someone else was already zipping her dress up for her and that definitely wasn't Digg. He was zipping her dress up way too slowly and she could feel the heat coming from his left hand that was holding her dress in place while he zipped it up. When she turned around she smiled unsurprised that it was Oliver that was helping her.

 

"Thanks," she cursed at how low her voice sounded and cleared her throat, which made Oliver smirk but it fell off his face quickly. "You okay?" She asked concerned. Oliver, even if he was nervous for a mission almost never showed it. He gave one short clipped nod.

 

"Just keep your eyes open tonight. There's a very real chance that someone will recognize me," he out his hand on her shoulder and gave a squeeze his thumb landing on her collarbone. It took all of her willpower not to close her eyes but then he was gone and he was back near his stuff situating his black bow tie.

 

They got in the house with no problem thanks to Felicity but Oliver was still a bundle of nerves. His left hand was on her lower back while his right thumb and forefinger were rubbing together. She now knew he did that when he was nervous and didn’t have his bow with him, which was always because Waller gave him a gun not a bow and arrow.

 

They had their guns and Felicity had a knife strapped to her left calf. She and Oliver were on the dance floor but neither of them were paying attention to their dancing even if she was very aware of his hand that was lying heavily on her lower back.

 

"The guards switch in five minutes. That'll be the easiest time to strike,” Oliver said looking over her left shoulder.

 

“Digg’s already by the doors. Lawton’s near the host and Turner is by the staircase. We’re good to go,” Felicity responded her eyes travelling around the room.

 

Her eyes stopped on a man. He was on the shorter side and had short brown hair. He looked middle aged but the way he was standing made Felicity think he could take them down without a second thought. And he was staring right at them; he wasn’t even trying to hide it.

 

“What is it?” Oliver hissed when he noticed that her eyes stopped wandering and locked on someone or something.

 

“There’s a man staring at us. I don’t know him so it must be you,” Felicity grit out between her smiling teeth trying not to tip the guy off. Trying not to make it look desperate and sudden she let her gaze casually fall away from him, though she kept him in the corner of her eye.

 

Turner made his way over with a tray of champagne giving Oliver the cover he needed to sneak a quick glance only to find his eyes on Malcolm Merlyn.

 

Oliver froze and turned with his back to Malcolm already panicked that he’d seen him.

 

“Do you know him? You do don’t you?” Felicity questioned as soon as Oliver turned back to her.

 

“Yeah I know him. That’s my best friend’s dad, Malcolm Merlyn. There’s no way he won’t recognize me if he sees me, I grew up around him.”

 

“Stick with the plan,” Waller’s voice crackled in their ears and Felicity bit her tongue so that she wouldn’t lash out. “It’s just one man you can avoid him. The guards are rotating now, time to move.”

 

Oliver grabbed Felicity’s hand in his and kept his head down as they walked through the ballroom and down the hall to the side staircase. They made it upstairs and into the main office with no problems. Digg stood outside the door and Turner and Lawton were hovering near the bottom of the staircase.

 

Felicity had barely sat down when there was shouting in their earpieces. The security guards had found them, and Lawton and Turner were already being pushed out of the party. Digg quickly ran downstairs to help them so Oliver moved outside leaving Felicity alone.

 

In another two minutes she could hear Oliver fighting someone and she couldn’t hear anyone else so Felicity tried to find her information faster hoping no one came in.

 

“Smoak get going the guys are out and NYPD is on the way,” she heard Waller’s voice in her ear and Felicity blanched at the thought that she was alone. She was still sitting at the desk waiting for the information to download onto the USB when someone crashed through the window. “What was that?” Waller yelled.

 

“Slide away from the computer,” Felicity looked up and saw the man that Oliver had identified as Malcolm Merlyn pointing a gun at her. Felicity let her hands fly up in the air and rolled away from the computer whispering _oh shit_ as she did.

 

He aimed and fired and Felicity screamed out a bit as it grazed her upper arm. Felicity had no doubt that he hit exactly where he aimed, and that if he wanted to kill her he would have.

 

As Felicity grabbed her right arm in her left, Malcolm was right in front of her. Before she could say anything else he jabbed her with a needle in the neck and everything faded out including Waller’s voice in her ear.

 

When Felicity came to, she was chained to a chair by her arms and legs. She was still in her red dress but her shoes and knife were gone. Her head was pounding and her neck was sore from the needle Malcolm stabbed her with. Her arm hurt the most though, burning from where the bullet grazed her arm.

 

“Look who’s awake,” Malcolm’s voice was amused and Felicity’s eyes felt heavy as she looked at him. He was smirking at her and he was swinging a long hunting knife in his hands.

 

Felicity shuddered as he walked closer to her.

 

“Who do you work for?” Malcolm asked and Felicity kept her eyes and mouth closed as the knife dragged along her stomach, ripping the dress and spilling some blood in the process. He asked the question five more times before full on plunging the knife through her thigh.

 

Her screams filled the warehouse until the sun came up and she passed out.

 

She was there for seventeen hours, which she could only tell because Malcolm seemed to find some amusement in telling her how long it’d been. Felicity was caked in her own blood and bruises littered her body. Malcolm asked about ARGUS, her job, and Oliver Queen. Felicity kept throwing fake information at him if only to get him to stop for a few minutes to check her information, but she wasn’t trained in evading torture and eventually she had to give up small things.

 

She told him her name and that she worked for ARGUS. She probably would have given him more information if the door to the warehouse weren’t blown off its hinges at the exact moment that he asked more about ARGUS.

 

Digg was the first one in the room shooting Malcolm in the back so that he couldn’t touch the knife to Felicity’s body again. Malcolm fell to the side with a scream of pain and he was gasping for air but nobody touched him. Turner stood with his gun trained on Malcolm and she could see a red dot on the door letting her know that Lawton was on a rooftop somewhere watching them.

 

Digg got her out of the chair quickly and by the time that he lifted her out of the chair Felicity’s adrenaline from seeing her teammates wore off and by the time they made it to the helicopter and Felicity was passed from Digg to Oliver she was passed out against his chest.

 

~~~

 

It took three weeks for the team physician to clear Felicity for work again and even then she was reluctant enough to clear Felicity, only doing so when Waller forced it out of her.

 

In those three weeks Felicity stayed behind her computer like she was originally supposed to do. She worked with her team from long-range comm’s, not even going in the van with their two handlers. The only downside was she had Waller staring over her shoulder the whole time Felicity was on the computer, snapping at her to go faster.

 

She got a lot closer to Oliver in the three weeks.

 

At first he wouldn’t even look at her and Felicity thought he was mad at her for not telling his friends dad he was alive. She had even cornered him to apologize when he had the Oliver Queen version of a breakdown and apologized profusely, and said how worried he was about her. They both spent five minutes apologizing over each other before Felicity actually started laughing and suggested they move on.

 

It was easier said than done.

 

Felicity didn’t look at herself in the mirror much anymore, unless she had her jumpsuit on, and even then she didn’t like it, the beginnings of a scar on her collarbone were visible, and both of her gunshot wounds were still partially visible in the jumpsuit. Out of the jumpsuit, Felicity couldn’t be bothered to look at herself. The wound on her thigh was raised and puckered, and it was only just starting to not be an angry red. The scar that started on her collarbone traveled down the right side of her chest, stopping in the middle of her stomach, though it was fairly thin. On her left hip was the scar she hated the most. It was at least two inches thick and five inches long was just a jumble of angry purple raised skin.

 

Oliver seemed firm in his belief that someone was going to pop out of the shadows and take Felicity. The only time he ever let her out of his site was when they were sleeping, though Oliver’s increasingly big baggy eyes made Felicity think he really wasn’t sleeping much.

 

In the end of her first week of recovery Felicity and Oliver were both barred from exercising, Felicity because of her still recovering injuries, and Oliver because he pulled a muscle working out with Digg the day before so they forced him into two days of rest, which wasn’t making him very happy.

 

Felicity was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and Oliver was sitting by her feet, alternating between staring at his hands, which he was rubbing, and Felicity.

 

They had been sitting in silence for at least fifteen minutes before Felicity burst out laughing. She shook a little bit with the force of her laughs and Oliver looked over at her as if she just had a mental breakdown, which actually made sense, because she didn’t feel sane anymore.

 

“What?” He finally asked when Felicity sat up on her elbows, still chuckling to herself. There was a glint in his eyes that said he was slightly amused but the rest of his face showed concern that there was something wrong with her.

 

“I’m only 22 and there’s a bomb in my spine!” She started laughing again but the amused glint left Oliver’s eyes. “Some lunatic is dead just because he thought you were alive. I’m 22 and I’ve been tortured for information.”

 

Her laughs died down and she sobered up letting her weight drop from her elbows and back onto the bed.

 

“How did this happen?” She said it in an almost whisper and Oliver leaned back letting the wall support him as he let his cheek rest on the wall so he was looking at Felicity, whose cheek was resting on the bed.

 

“I really don’t know. I was in a shipwreck, and suddenly I’m a prisoner on a government team that no one even knows about. Last week, my best friends dad was torturing you for information,” Oliver chuckled humorlessly.

 

“Sometimes I think this is some elaborate coma dream, or I’m in some mental institution in a drug induced haze, because seriously the government put bombs in our spines like how is that even a thing. I’m sitting in a cell with Oliver Queen who should have died like five years ago, and you’ve saved my life more times than I can count. This just all seems unreal.”

 

“It’s definitely something,” Oliver agreed and Felicity hummed in response before sitting up and crossing her legs and cocking her head.

 

“Do you ever think of what your life would be like if you were rescued or you were never shipwrecked in the first place?”

 

Oliver was quiet for a few minutes and just when Felicity was going to backtrack her question he started to talk.

 

“When I was on the island, and I was cold and lonely I would play this game. I would take Laurel, my then girlfriend’s picture out of my pocket and stare at it. I would imagine being rescued and going home, I could see my best friend Tommy, and my little sister, who I wouldn’t even recognize anymore because she was twelve when I left, and my mom would hug me, and I’d get the chance to make it right with Laurel, and I’d finally be ready for commitment and the life she always wanted with me and we’d finally be happy,”

 

“That sounds nice,” Felicity smiled softly and Oliver shook his head.

 

“It was just a thought to get me through the days there. Now I just want all of this to be done,” Oliver admitted.

 

“I know what you mean,” Felicity said ruefully. “You know I was two months away from graduation at MIT. I actually had an offer from your family’s company and I was going to take it. I would’ve been able to start over in a new city, start living a real life away from all my mistakes in Boston. It’s nice to think about how simple it would have been. I was never close to my mom, but some days she’s all I can think about; how she’s dealing with this, if she’s moved on or if she’s still thinking of me, what I would say to her if I ever saw her again. It’s a nice thought to fall asleep too, too bad it’ll never happen,” Felicity looked at the ground shaking her head trying to get out of her misery.

 

“Felicity,” Oliver snapped her name out in what sounded like happiness as he grabbed her leg at the same time to get her attention. He smiled slowly and slightly, a full smile was something she had never seen on Oliver Queen’s face. She looked at him and cocked her head in question again. “How do you feel about getting out of here?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's one more part that I'll put up tomorrow morning, hope you like the final installment! Please comment&kudo and bookmark&subscribe. And if anyone's interested by tumblr is fmsmoaky so feel free to shoot me a message about anything :)


	3. The Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyla lends a helping hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay part 3 of 3 is here for you all! I'm so touched and amazed by all the positive comments and how many kudos/bookmarks I've been getting these past two days. This is definitely going to encourage me to publish the College!AU WIP I have going on right now, so look out for that within in the next week ;) 
> 
> I'm sure there will be a few questions at the end so the end note will (hopefully) answer those questions for you.
> 
> I really hope you like this last part!

  **[Polyvore](http://www.polyvore.com/mistakes_men/collection?id=4268987)**

 

They’re halfway into their month-long escape plan when Digg almost dies.

 

They’re in China this time, trying to steal a drug back from the Chinese Triad and Digg takes a bullet to the stomach and he’s in a coma for three days.

 

Lyla came to visit him in the second night while Felicity and Oliver were sitting with him. She’d slipped in when no one was in the hallway and stood with her back to the door so no one would see her.

 

Felicity immediately stood up and offered her chair, recognizing Lyla, but Oliver who’d only heard who she was shooting Felicity a confused look over Lyla’s back who refused the seat and went to Digg’s side.

 

“Oh Johnny,” she whispered as she ran a hand over his cheek lightly. “What happened?” She turned to Felicity.

 

“He got shot trying to steal a drug back from China White, only there was no drug so we really have no idea what happened to be honest,” Felicity told her honestly.

 

“Waller’s going to get you guys killed.”

 

“We’re trying to get out,” Felicity whispered in case there were cameras or bugs in the room.

 

“Felicity!” Oliver growled at her but she shrugged. She had a feeling Lyla would help Digg and them by extension.

 

“Who?” Lyla looked surprised and a little hopeful, she knew she didn’t want this life for Digg.

 

“The three of us, Turner and Lawton said that this was better than prison and they’re fine where they are, but they’re trying to help us. I already have all of the information on the Suicide Squad on a USB, ready to be given to the public if Waller tries anything. We have our plan for how to get out while on a mission we just need…” Felicity trailed off and Lyla perked slightly.

 

“What do you need?” Lyla asked eagerly and it was Oliver who answered.

 

“We need the bombs out of our spines.”

 

“I think I can help with that,” she said after a few moments of silence. “Be ready for it in five days,” she placed a kiss on Digg’s head before walking back outside, slipping away just as quickly as she had came.

 

“I need a computer, again,” Felicity informed Oliver, her veins already buzzing with the sense of escape, so close to them.

 

~~~

 

They had a mission the next day and since Digg was still out it was all hands on deck. They had to break into a Russian scientists house in the middle of the day to get the schematics for a weapon without letting him know that they were there.

 

Felicity bundled into a purple sweater and black jeans before wrapping the scarf around her neck tightly, not ready for the harsh Russian winter. At the last second she grabbed a headband and gloves as well, which she was eternally grateful for as soon as the quartet stepped out of the van on the street behind the Doctor’s house.

 

Turner got them inside the house in a matter of seconds and Felicity put the security tapes on a loop so no one would know they were there.

 

While Lawton and Turner looked around the house for physical schematics Felicity and Oliver went to his office. Felicity had prepped so that she could do this faster than normal. Where something like this normally would have taken her two minutes she did it in thirty seconds. She spent the next two minutes telling Waller it was taking longer than normal even though the information was on the USB in Oliver’s hand.

 

Instead Felicity was quickly making new identities for herself, Oliver and, Digg. Just as Waller was yelling that she had thirty seconds Felicity was sending the documents to an account that Lyla had just made so that she could print them out.

 

Five minutes later they were all back in the van, their handlers with the Russian USB and none the wiser about what was being planned.

 

~~~

 

Four days later Lyla came for them at two in the morning. Oliver and Felicity followed Lyla to Digg’s hospital room, who was already sitting up in his bed waiting for them.

 

“I’m going to take the bombs out of your spine and put them in your forearm just under the surface so that when the time comes you can take them out yourselves, and quickly,” Lyla had a scalpel in her gloved hands and suddenly Felicity wasn’t too sure about this.

 

Oliver seemed to notice and grabbed her upper arms gently in his large hands.

 

“Hey, you’ll be okay, it’ll be over quickly and then we’ll be even closer to being free from this place,” he rubbed his hands over her arms lightly and Felicity let out a long breath nodding. “I’ll go first.”

 

Lyla nodded and Oliver sat backwards in the chair barely flinching when Lyla pulled the small chip out of his spine and then replaced it in his left forearm, quickly doing to same with Felicity and then Digg.

 

As they left Lyla promised their documents within two weeks.

 

Felicity hadn’t smiled that brightly in three years.

 

~~~

 

Their time for escape came three weeks later.

 

Lyla was tasked with getting Felicity’s clothes and when she opened the purple clutch Lyla handed her, their documents, plane tickets, and a hotel key were inside. Turning around to change into the black floor length dress Felicity looked at the floor to hide her smile.

 

They were in India at someone’s charity event and they needed the host’s account information so they could freeze his assets. They went inside and talked to Waller like everything was normal when really they were in a back hall digging the chips out of their arms.

 

“I’m in his office now, it should take about five minutes,” Felicity whispered into her ear before taking the microphone out and leaving it on the table with Digg’s, and Oliver’s, and their body bombs.

 

Quickly making their way to the back door they ran through yards and a small bit of woods before making it to the hotel fifteen minutes later. Breaking in through the back entrance they took the steps up to the fifth floor where their room was.

 

The guys started changing as soon as they got in the room, the clothes Lyla left for them laid on the bed in duffel bags. Felicity went into the bathroom changing out of the black dress and purple heels and into a bathrobe. On the counter in the bathroom there was a box of blonde dye and Felicity shoved her hands into the gloves before quickly working it through her hair not caring if it was perfect.

 

While the dye was changing her hair from light brown to blonde she sat at the computer composing an email to Amanda Waller. Digg and Oliver were already dressed in jeans and casual t-shirts with leather jackets thrown over them and baseball caps on their heads. Their duffel bags sat at their feet with the documents from Felicity’s clutch, their plane tickets, some cash, the clothes from the party and casual clothes that Lyla had thrown in as well.

 

Digg had packed Felicity’s duffel as well, with only red jeans and a sweater lying on the bed along with black converses waiting for her to change into.

 

Felicity grabbed the laptop Lyla had left them and started writing the email.

 

_I’m sure by now you’ve realized that we are gone and our chips have been removed from our bodies. Attached you will find the information that I have readily available to me about the Suicide Squad. Should you attempt to take any one of us, or our families out at any point in our lives, this information will become public knowledge._

_If I don’t log into an account after a determined amount of time the information will release on its own to every major news network in the world. Do not test this._

_F. Smoak._

 

“Send it,” Oliver said after they both read it over her shoulder. Felicity nodded and hit send before putting the USB back on a chain around her neck. Moving to the bathroom she quickly rinsed the die out of her hair and stuck the gray beanie on her head before changing into the new clothes.

 

Thirty minutes after they had gotten there, the trio left the hotel in India and made their way to the airport. It took them twenty minutes by taxi to get there and all three of them were tensed the entire time. Felicity swore she saw someone outside of the airport but three hours later they were seated on a straight through flight to Starling City.

 

Settled in between Digg and Oliver, Felicity let out a big breath and allowed herself to finally relax.

 

“We did it,” she whispered grabbing one of Oliver and Digg’s hands in hers and squeezing.

 

Almost 18 hours later they touched down in Starling City.

 

“Now what?” Felicity asked as they got off the plane. Oliver had his hat pulled down as far as it could go and was staring at the ground so no one would recognize him. They had straightened out their story on the plane but Felicity still felt at a loss of what to do.

 

“Stick to the plan,” Digg said as they walked to the line of people waiting for taxis.

 

Felicity nodded grabbing Oliver’s forearm and gently leading him into the taxi. Oliver sat in the back with Felicity only speaking to roughly give the taxi driver directions to the manor. Not wanting him to know where they were going they had him stop a few houses away and gave him a generous tip so he would go away.

 

They got to the front door and Oliver just stood there with his hand on the door handle. He’d already pulled the cap off of his head and stuffed it in the duffel bag but he hadn’t moved since.

 

“Oliver?” Felicity asked gently, letting her hand rest on his back. He turned to look at her and smiled slightly and then turned to look at Digg as well. After that his shoulders straightened and he looked like he had his strength again. He almost turned the handle when he looked at them again.

 

“Just, don’t-don’t go anywhere,” he said it almost like it was a command but Felicity didn’t even mind. She didn’t even really think she would be able to function without the two men near her anymore. Oliver turned the handle and Felicity was surprised to find it open. “Hello?” He called out into the house and Felicity couldn’t help but think that this was a good way to get shot.

 

“Who’s there? Is that you Tommy?” A girl’s voice called from somewhere upstairs and then they heard footsteps. Oliver dropped his bag on the ground and started rubbing his thumb and forefinger together in anticipation for whoever’s voice that was.

 

A girl with long, wavy brown hair stopped at the top of the steps. She was tiny and looked to still be a teenager, dressed in black skinny jeans, a pink three-quarter-length shirt, and a blue flats. The girl started walking down the steps, her eyes glued to her phone when she looked up. As soon as her eyes registered on who was standing in the foyer her phone clattered from her hands and fell down the steps and she stopped where she stood.

 

“Ollie?” The girl yelled out and Oliver barely nodded before she was barreling down the steps and leaping into his arms. “I knew you weren’t dead!” She mumbled into his neck loud enough for Felicity and Digg to hear. She froze after a minute and disentangled herself from his arms glaring at him. “Where the hell have you been!?”

 

“It’s a long story,” Oliver sighed. “Where’s mom?”

 

“Thea what are you yelling for?” Another woman’s voice came from the top of the steps again, and Felicity was sure that it was Oliver’s mom.

 

“Oliver?” She questioned and started hurrying down the steps before he could even answer, still looking graceful somehow. She enveloped him in her arms and Felicity could physically see him sigh into the hug. “Who are they?” She asked noticing Felicity and Digg standing behind his shoulder.

 

“They saved me. It’s a long story,” Oliver sighed again.

 

“Well come on, let’s move to the sitting room. I’m sure you’ll want to see Tommy,” Moira said as she led them to the sitting room. Once again Felicity sat in between the two guys. Thea pulled her phone out and moved to the edge of the room.

 

“I’m going to call Tommy.”

 

Moira nodded and then looked at Oliver expectedly though Felicity could see the happiness and love shining through her eyes.

 

“I was stranded on a deserted island and a few years ago Digg and Felicity washed up on a boat. It took us a while to get the boat back in somewhat of a useable order. Fishermen picked us up and they got us clothes and tickets back here. We didn’t want them to say anything before I got to see you guys.”

 

By the time Oliver finished their fabricated story Thea was sitting on the couch across from the three of them next to Moira.

 

“Well I just can’t believe that you’re home. We’ll have to have a press conference tomorrow announcing your return, but tonight we’ll just enjoy having you back. Your friends are of course welcome to stay.”

 

“That’s very kind of you,” Felicity piped up. “Are you sure?” Felicity questioned even though she knew Oliver wasn’t going to let her or Digg leave at all.

 

“Of course. You helped me get my son back, anything I can do for you I will,” Moira smiled sweetly and Felicity gave her a grateful smile. “Do you have family you would like to call?”

 

“That would be nice,” Felicity said, as Moira handed her home phone over to Felicity who dialed what she hoped was still her mom’s cell phone number and got up to walk over to the edge of the room by the window.

 

Donna Smoak answered on the third ring.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Mom?” Felicity’s voice was quiet and she heard her mom gasp.

 

“Felicity is that you?” She could already hear the tears in her mom’s voice.

 

“Yeah mom it’s me. Uhm, I’m alive,” tears welled in Felicity’s eyes as well as she stared at the ground. She could hear Donna’s sobs through the phone.

 

“Felicity baby where are you?”

 

“I’m in Starling City.”

 

“I’ll be there tomorrow baby. I’ll see you tomorrow, I love you.”

 

“I love you too mom,” Felicity hung up and took a deep breath wiping the tears that were gathering at the bottom of her eyes. When she felt composed enough she turned around and handed the phone back to Moira before returning to her seat.

 

They made idle chatter for the next twenty minutes before the front door swung open so hard that it hit the wall behind it with an audible thud.

 

“Ollie!” A man came practically running through the front door until he got to the sitting room, two females trailing behind him, a smile splitting across his face. “I told you that a yacht was a bad idea.”

 

Oliver stood up grinning to grab the man in a hug and Felicity was sure that this was his best friend Tommy. Felicity was just glad he didn’t look anything like his dad because she was already feeling tense. Digg put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed so she would breath. Felicity nodded her thanks and let herself relax.

 

Felicity looked at the two women behind Tommy, the blonde one was smiling brightly but there was something in her face that looked guarded. Felicity could see that she was staring at out the windows and around at the doors. The one with brown hair was smiling tightly.

 

“Sara?!” Oliver noticed the two women behind Tommy and his mouth opened in shock. The blonde in question nodded and laughed. “You’re alive?”

 

“Yes! You’re alive too?!” The blonde laughed again and gave him a light hug but her body was still tense.

 

“Laurel?” Oliver looked down at her hands because Laurel was ringing them together nervously and there was a rock on her finger. “You’re engaged?”

 

Tommy rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

 

“Uhm, to me,” Tommy let his hand rest on the small of Laurel’s back and she leaned into him slightly.

 

“This just got interesting,” Felicity whispered as she leaned over to talk to Digg.

 

He grunted in response, his lips ticking up at the edges.

 

Dinner was an interesting affair.

 

Not only was Tommy engaged to Oliver’s ex-girlfriend and Oliver’s mom was married to someone new but Tommy also told them about his dad. Felicity had coughed to cover up her discomfort and even Digg tensed a little considering he was the one that killed him. Felicity was sure Sara noticed something but thankfully she said nothing.

 

When Thea asked how the island was and all Oliver said was cold Felicity was sure he was about to get up and leave so she squeezed his leg under the table to get him to stay put. The three of them didn’t have every aspect of their story mapped out and Felicity and Digg had never been to the island that Sara definitely been to so they couldn’t exactly be left alone to talk about it.

 

When they talked about the press conference Thea was quick to jump to take Felicity shopping the next day before the conference. She shot a panicked look at Oliver and Digg but they just smirked and Felicity prepared herself for the day.

 

~~~

 

The press conference was extremely overwhelming to say the least.

 

Felicity had been forced out of the guest room at the crack of dawn by Thea who bought her clothes and took her to get her hair done. Felicity was exhausted by the time she was forced to the press conference. Thea was nice but she kept slyly trying to pry information out of her the entire time.

 

So at the press conference Felicity was content to stand in the white dress and pink blazer that Thea had forced her into. Trying to look professional as possible Felicity stood with her hands crossed in front of her next to Digg trying to ignore the cameras.

 

The reunion with her mom was just a lot of tears and incoherent babbling.

 

By the time her mom finished hugging her Felicity was actually having trouble breathing from how tight she was holding her.

 

Felicity’s mom was going to stay in Starling for a while and Felicity was pretty sure she was going to end up moving here with the way she was talking about it.

 

Digg reunited with his nephew and sister in law telling them that he was looking for Andy’s killer all this time.

 

Oliver decided to try and help the city and Felicity and Digg wanted to help him. All three of them were looking to make up for everything that they did while working for Waller and the Suicide Squad.

 

Three months after they came back they opened a security and technology firm where most of their profits went to different charities. The company quickly expanded and soon they had galas almost every month and were one of the top security companies within a year.

 

Most of that was just a cover though. Sure their company was real and they were doing some good in regards to charities especially with the help of a partnership with Queen Consolidated.

 

Their cover was for their night job. The three of them, sometimes joined by Sara, would spend their nights righting the wrongs done by the corrupt rich in Starling. The Arrow spent his nights with the Canary and John Diggle fighting the crime that the police didn’t know about, with Felicity being their eyes and ears from the basement of their tech company. It wasn’t the most perfect operation, but it made them feel better about all the bad they had done.

 

A year after they finally made their way back Oliver asked Felicity on a date.

 

They were leaving the office to head to a gala, Oliver decked out in a tux, and Felicity in a floor length sequined teal gown when he suddenly grabbed her arm stopping her from walking into the limo that was waiting for them outside.

 

“What’s up?” Felicity cocked her head to the side trying to figure out why Oliver had stopped her.

 

“Do you want to get dinner?” Oliver asked and Felicity almost started laughing.

 

“We’re about to head to a charity gala Oliver,” she gently reminded him. Oliver smiled and shook his head rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“Uhm not tonight I mean at some later date, y’know not tonight, like a real date,” Felicity smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically.

 

“I would love too.”

 

The date happened a week later. Felicity took special care getting ready that day, buying a new tight light green dress and gold heels. She even had Sara, who she’d become close friends with come over and help style her hair into loose curls and put light makeup on her.

 

The whole date passed in a blur for Felicity. She couldn’t remember what they talked about just that they never really stopped. She hadn’t felt that open and carefree in a long time.

 

And when the date ended and he dropped Felicity off at her apartment she invited him up and he never really left after that.

 

They married a year later in their base of operations. Three months later Thea would force them to have a bigger ceremony with a real cake and dress and bridal party but in that moment Felicity was afraid he would die two hours earlier so they did it anyways. Oliver still had traces of grease paint around his eyes and the bandage on his chest was still caked with blood from his latest brush with death; Felicity was still in a work dress from the night before, her heels were scattered somewhere else and her hair was a mess of tangled curls around her head. It was hectic and personal just like them, which made it perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand done! I know the ending was kind of vague and a little cheesy but it was the only way I could think of to bring everything around full circle. 
> 
> First, I know it seems weird that Turner and Lawton wouldn't want to escape too, but in my mind, they're actual criminals and other law enforcement agencies would be looking for them if they escaped, they would constantly have to be on the run. Felicity(besides that virus), Digg, and Oliver aren't actually criminals and no one else even knew they were with the Suicide Squad so no one would be looking for them as criminals. If they got out, they could just live, whereas Turner and Lawton couldn't.
> 
> In regards to Tommy being alive: Malcolm Merlyn died before the Undertaking would have happened in a canon timeline, and I don't think anyone else would have carried that act out without him. No Undertaking, no dead Tommy. Since him and Laurel had already slept together before Oliver came back, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Tommy would finally ask her out for real even without Oliver coming back. And with no Oliver or Arrow to come between them, they would continue dating and voila engagement.
> 
> Sara was probably the biggest stretch: She came back bc of the Undertaking, which never took place in this story. She was however getting sick of the killing so in this story we're just going to say that Nyssa got her father to release her from the LOA and she returned home to her family about a year before Oliver&Co made their return.
> 
> I think that covers up most (hopefully all) loose ends. I really hope you guys liked this and will continue to like anything else I post in the near future.

**Author's Note:**

> So, hope you liked the first part. The second part will be up tomorrow most likely and then the day after that for the third part. Please leave kudos&comments and subscribe&bookmark!


End file.
